The increasing use of smartphones around the world provides new opportunities for network data collection using smartphone surveys. We investigated experimentally whether the use of smartphones and of a recall aid affects the number of reported names in a network name generator question. In a German online access panel (N = 3891), respondents were randomly assigned to answer the survey on their PC or on their smartphone and were randomly assigned to receive an open-ended recall aid question before the name generator question or after. Results showed that respondents on PCs and smartphones reported the same number of network contacts. This suggests that smartphone surveys have no negative effect on the network sizes in ego-centered network studies. However, requiring people to answer on smartphones resulted in a selection bias due to non-compliance, which may have led to an overrepresentation of persons with larger network sizes. The recall aid question did not lead to more reported names, but it proved to be an indicator of respondents’ motivation and response quality. In sum, the study suggests that smartphones can effectively be used for network research in tech-savvy populations or when respondents can choose to complete the survey on another device.

世界各地越来越多的智能手机使用为使用智能手机调查收集网络数据提供了新的机会。我们通过实验调查了智能手机和召回帮助的使用是否会影响网络名称生成器问题中报告名称的数量。在德国在线访问面板（N = 3891）中，被随机分配的受访者在其PC或智能手机上回答调查，并被随机分配在姓名生成器问题之前或之后接收开放式召回帮助问题。结果显示，PC和智能手机上的受访者报告的网络联系数量相同。这表明，在以自我为中心的网络研究中，智能手机调查对网络规模没有负面影响。但是，由于不遵守规定，要求人们在智能手机上回答问题会导致选择偏见，这可能导致网络规模较大的人员人数过多。召回援助问题并未导致更多人举报姓名，但事实证明，它可以指示受访者的动机和响应质量。总之，该研究表明，智能手机可以有效地用于精通技术的人群中的网络研究，或者当受访者可以选择在另一台设备上完成调查时。